<![CDATA[Stealing Buddha's Dinner]]>

false <![CDATA[Stealing Buddha's Dinner]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172702897m/209572.jpg 209572 8 A vivid, funny, and viscerally powerful memoir about childhood, assimilation, food, and growing up in the 1980s As a Vietnamese girl coming of age in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bich Nguyen is filled with a rapacious hunger for American identity. In the pre-PC era Midwest, where the devoutly Christian blond-haired, blue-eyed Jennifers and Tiffanys reign supreme, Nguyen's barely conscious desire to belong transmutes into a passion for American food. More exotic seeming than her Buddhist grandmother's traditional specialtiesspring rolls, delicate pancakes stuffed with meats, fried shrimp cakesthe campy, preservative-filled delicacies of mainstream America capture her imagination. And in this remarkable book, the glossy branded allure of such American foods as Pringles, Kit Kats, and Toll House cookies become an ingenious metaphor for her struggle to fit in, to become a real American. Beginning with Nguyen's family's harrowing migration from Saigon in 1975, Stealing Buddha's Dinner is nostalgic and candid, deeply satisfying and minutely observed, and stands as a unique vision of the immigrant experience and a lyrical ode to how identity is often shaped by the things we long for. 202837 book 1 2 2007 Stealing Buddha's Dinner total:618|5:71|4:221|3:233|2:76|1:20| 618 2102 985 208 2 6 false false Thu Mar 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 08:36:08 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 05 11:28:25 -0800 2009
On one hand, of 253 pages in this book, I'd bet about 100 are dedicated to descriptions of food and packaging that food came in.
Besides tamales and tor...more...]]> 3 4 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 23 15:35:52 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 23 15:58:59 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 4 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 19:33:43 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 08:03:28 -0700 2007
So imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a memoir...more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 18 06:55:42 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 06:46:43 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 3 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Mar 10 14:30:19 -0800 2007 Sun Aug 05 19:35:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 4 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 08 15:22:44 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 14:40:47 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 08:24:13 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 27 08:27:20 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 08:00:21 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 20:10:35 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 20:15:35 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 22:46:38 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 1 false false Thu Feb 05 09:42:48 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:42:48 -0800 2009 Bich Minh Nguyen's humorous coming-of-age tale mines themes of loss and identity by cleverly retelling anecdotes in chapters dealing with__or gleefully obsessing over?__particular American foods. Her prose is engaging, and half the fun is reliving with her the pop culture of the 1980s. Rosa's role a...

more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri May 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri May 23 19:53:44 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 05 16:40:22 -0700 2008 Although I am a white girl with dark hair, I could relate to the author. It seemed that she was pretty close to my age, the coveted red Tupperware lunchbox was a big giveaway! There was that one girl in my 5th grade class: long blonde hair down to her butt-that sometimes wa...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 09:07:01 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 22:04:15 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 07:56:40 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 15 04:48:42 -0800 2009
T...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Sep 02 15:25:54 -0700 2007 Sun Feb 24 22:50:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 08:04:51 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 19:41:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 3 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 29 19:28:48 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 22 17:27:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Feb 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 12:42:30 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 18:11:44 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 17 10:13:48 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 09:35:01 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 16:45:56 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 16:45:59 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Dec 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Sep 03 08:07:07 -0700 2008 Mon Dec 29 18:57:37 -0800 2008
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